Sunday, 29 March 2015

In
India, what do people buy online? While electronics and apparel are
some of the largest selling items, products such as adult diapers and
blood glucose meters are seeing a rapid rise in demand on e-tailing
sites along with tug-of-war ropes or even robotic ping-pong tables and
selfie kits.

Kunal Bahl, co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal, was
surprised when he reviewed the range of products being bought from tier
II and III towns from his online marketplace. "Online retail has
revolutionized the way Indians shop. Some of the categories witnessing
high traction from these places are very interesting," he said.

Arvind Singhal, founder of retail consultancy Technopak, said,
"Penetration of FMCG products and consumer durables are very high across
India. But in smaller towns and cities, people don't have access to
many categories that are easily available in metros. For instance, if
you move just 300Km away from Delhi to Nainital, availability of items
such as solar lanterns drops sharply. So the only option for people
there is to shop online because, for many categories, the reach of
online players is greater than that of their brick and mortar
counterparts."

Snapdeal has a separate team that travels into
far-flung places like the interior of Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu &
Kashmir to partner with local courier companies.

Data from eBay
shows people in Lakshadweep buy a large number of bar accessories
online from eBay, while Nagaland sees a high demand for camping gear.
Bike accessories are a big hit in Daman & Diu, while Chandigarh sees
big purchases of networking and wireless devices, and Goa fuels the
demand for hats.

"We have seen faster e-commerce growth in
non-metros due to the advent of low priced smartphones and internet
access," said Vidmay Naini, director (business operations), eBay India.
"Consumers in non-metros are not only buying mainstream products but
also unique items such as DJ turn tables, body-piercing jewellery,
dashcams, temporary hair colour styling gel."

People in smaller
towns are going online not just for 'offbeat' goods, Singhal said.
"Items such as branded apparel are also hard to find in those areas. So,
shopping online is the only option for people there," he said.

For Flipkart, Coimbatore and Tirupur have become apparel hubs and have
seen 200% growth in demand last year, while Kundli, Pudducherry and
Panipat have emerged as major hubs for categories such as home, consumer
electronics and apparels. "Demand for leather and sports goods is
growing among smaller city customers with Ludhiana and Jalandhar
catering to 65% of these orders," said a Flipkart spokesperson.

Saturday, 28 March 2015

Microsoft said the number of global law enforcement requests for user
data fell in 2014 as the tech giant renewed its call for surveillance
reforms.

In its twice-yearly "transparency report," Microsoft
said the total number of law enforcement requests received in the second
half of the year was 31,002, bringing to the total for the year to
65,496 -- down from 72,279 a year earlier.

Some 70% of the requests came from five countries -- the United States, France, Britain, Germany and Turkey, the report said.

Microsoft deputy counsel John Frank said in a statement that while law
enforcement authorities sometimes need to access data to protect the
public, "access should be governed by the rule of law, and not by
mandating back doors or weakening the security of our products and
services."

He said revelations about vast government
surveillance programmes underscore a need for reforms in the United
States and more clarity in international agreements on cross-border data
sharing.

"We need commitments that governments will not hack technology companies to access data outside the legal process," he said.

"Efforts to hack technology companies have undermined confidence in the security and privacy of online communications."

Microsoft also released data on US national security data requests, in
accordance with requirements that it provide only ranges of numbers with
a lag of at least six months.

The report showed that the
company received between zero and 999 orders from a secret US
intelligence court from January through June 2014 -- the same range it
has reported since 2011.

Friday, 27 March 2015

Yahoo
says it will buy back $2 billion in company stock as it prepares to spin
off its stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.

Investors
were pushing Yahoo to use some of the proceeds from the Alibaba spinoff
to buy back stock, and the company had said it would keep buying back
stock to return cash to shareholders.

Shares of Yahoo rose 93 cents, or 2%, to $45.40 in aftermarket trading.

The stock repurchase program will expire March 31, 2018. Yahoo has $726
million remaining on previous stock buyback plan, which was approved in
2013 and expires at the end of 2016.

In January, Yahoo said it
will spin off its stake in Alibaba Group. later this year. The move
will allow the new entity to pay lower taxes on Alibaba stock sales than
Yahoo would have.

Yahoo owns 384 million shares of Alibaba, and as of Thursday's close its stake is worth about $32 billion.

Activist investor Starboard Value pushed for the spinoff in 2014. More
recently it has called for Yahoo to spin off its Japanese business, cut
costs, and get cash for its intellectual property and real estate
holdings. It proposed an even larger stock repurchase of up to $4
billion.

Monday, 16 March 2015

China's
Li Ning is teaming up with Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi to produce a
new generation of 'smart' running shoes this year, in the sports
brand's latest effort to revive its waning fortunes.

Li Ning,
backed by private equity powerhouse TPG Capital and Singapore wealth
fund GIC, warned in January that it expects to post its third
consecutive full-year loss, as it grapples with a restructuring, bloated
inventories and slowing demand following the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Li Ning's efforts to recapture its glory days by appealing to a younger
generation have been evident in its product design and high-profile
marketing campaigns. In 2013, it signed a multi-million dollar
sponsorship deal with NBA basketball superstar Dwayne Wade.

Li
Ning said its partnership with Huami Technology, the fitness wearable
company behind the Mi band and part of the Xiaomi ecosystem, is the
first collaboration between sports and 'smart' technology in China.

"We have chosen to collaborate with the Mi band because of Huami
Technology's strength in 'smart' wearable products," Li Ning said in a
statement on Monday. "We hope to use this opportunity to provide
professional 'smart' running shoes to running enthusiasts in China at an
affordable price."

'Smart' chips are to be placed in the soles
of Li Ning running shoes. The 'smart' running shoes will be connected
to a Xiaomi mobile app, allowing runners to keep track of their progress
and results, analyze their form, and monitor their achievements.

It looks like YU, the recently launched smartphone brand from Micromax, is gearing up to launch a new smartphone.

The firm has already started teasing a phone which has been code-named
Project Caesar. The latest teasers on the company's Facebook page
suggest that the phone will come preloaded with Android Lollipop, the
latest version of Google's mobile OS.

YU has even taken a dig
at Xiaomi in a teaser that reads, 'KitKat in the age of lollipop? Give
ME a break.' Interestingly the 'ME' in the teaser resembles Xiaomi's
'Mi' logo. It's worth pointing out that Xiaomi's recent flagship, Mi 4,
comes preloaded with Android 4.4 KitKat and not Lollipop.

YU is
rumoured to release the new smartphone in April. This is also the time
when Cyanogen, which powers the software of YU smartphones, is expected
to release a build based on Android Lollipop. No other details related
to the phone are available at the moment. The company had earlier
launched Yureka, a budget phone that offers mid-range specifications and
is sold via weekly flash sales.

Saturday, 14 March 2015

Cuba
may have one of the lowest rates of internet access in the world, but
that hasn't dissuaded Google from sending over some of its leading
lights.

Executives from its in-house think tank Google Ideas
are on a visit to the communist island ? which is in the throes of
trying to normalize relations with the United States ? to tour
universities and meet computer science students, news portal Cubadebate
said on Friday.

They include the deputy director of Google
Ideas, Scott Carpenter, and Brett Perlmutter, a top Google figure who
went to Cuba last June with executive chairman Eric Schmidt.

The latest visitors met students at the University of Information
Science (UCI) in Havana, a technological institute and several public
computer centers known as 'Youth Clubs.'

Just 3.4% of
households in Cuba are connected to the internet and the government
keeps tight control over the web, though it vowed last month to "put the
internet at the service of all" to stimulate economic growth.

The historic announcement in December that Washington and Havana would
resume relations after more than five decades of Cold War animosity has
raised Cubans' hopes that they could soon have regular internet access
via the United States.

It has also put companies in the US and beyond on alert, hoping to cash in on the rapprochement.

"It can't be a coincidence that two of the top executives visiting the
country belong to Google Ideas, the subsidiary dedicated to 'exploring
how technology can enable people to confront threats in the face of
conflict, instability and repression,' as its mission statement reads,"
said Cubadebate.

The news portal said students told the
executives that they still could not download certain applications from
the Google Play online store to their cell phones despite Google's
recent move to unblock Cubans' access.

Cubadebate said the
students also expressed interest in selling video games developed at UCI
on Google Play. But the Google team said it would "not be possible for
the moment," the website said.

A number of complex issues still
divide Havana and Washington, including a punishing trade embargo,
which president Barack Obama would need Congressional approval to lift.

Thursday, 12 March 2015

Intel Corporation CEO Brian Krzanich has launched a series of mobile
platforms including the company's new low-cost system-on-chip (SoC) for
phones, phablets and tablets, a global LTE solution, innovative personal
computing experiences, and a range of customers for mobile device and
network infrastructure offerings. With technologies that span silicon,
software and security, Krzanich said Intel was one of the few companies
able to deliver solutions end-to-end, for devices, the network and the
cloud.

The announcements include the Intel® Atom x3 processor
series, Intel's first integrated communications SoC solution for the
growing value and entry device markets, and the five-mode Intel® XMM
7360 LTE Advanced solution, designed for performance and worldwide
coverage. In addition, Krzanich highlighted joint efforts with
Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Huawei to address the demand for new
telecommunications, cloud and data center services, improve network
efficiencies, and accelerate the industry's move toward a
software-defined infrastructure.

Krzanich also reiterated that
Samsung Galaxy S6* and S6 Edge users will have the latest anti-malware
solution fromMcAfee VirusScan Mobile technology built into and activated
on their devices.

"The evolution of the mobile landscape and
growth of smart, connected devices has led to increased demand for more
connectivity and real-time, protected data on those devices," said
Krzanich. "All of these factors are driving a transformation of the
network to accelerate the delivery of new personal computing
experiences, services and capabilities in a safe and secure manner.
Intel is one of the only companies in the world that can provide
solutions end-to-end for the full spectrum of mobility.

Wednesday, 11 March 2015

Japanese electronics giant Sony will launch its PlayStation gaming
console in China on March 20, it said after a more than two-month delay
in officially selling its products to Chinese consumers.

The
company originally planned to launch PlayStation 4 consoles in China on
January 11, but abruptly announced a delay only three days beforehand,
giving no reason for the change.

Instead it will start selling
its flagship console, hand-held PlayStation Vita and software on March
20, a statement on the PlayStation China microblog said on March 11.

China last year authorized the domestic sale of game consoles through
its first free-trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai, ending a ban imposed in
2000, although imports through unofficial channels have long been widely
available.

The country's leaders impose strict control over
content they deem to be obscene, violent or politically sensitive, and
under the rules of the FTZ all games must still pass inspection by
cultural authorities.

Sony rival Microsoft was the first
foreign company to enter China's potentially lucrative game market and
launched its Xbox One console in China in September.

Sony has said it would offer the PlayStation 4 in China for 2,899 yuan ($471) and the PlayStation Vita for 1,299 yuan.

It will offer Chinese versions of games including "Dynasty Warriors 8"
and "Final Fantasy", as well as titles from domestic developers.

Monday, 9 March 2015

Online
shopping may have become a fad but there are some who still swear by
brick-and-mortar stores. To ensure shoppers don't miss out on great
deals, two Bengaluru brothers have developed an app that gives them a
lowdown on all discounts available in their locality.

From
property deals and medical check-ups to shoes and mobile phones, mobile
app Madz covers diverse categories of goods and services. For example,
if you're in Jayanagar, south Bengaluru, and are looking for good deals,
you just need to download the app and log in. The screen will show a
map of your neighbourhood, flooded by discounts on everything from
apparel, shoes, bags and jewellery to food, haircuts, automobiles or
even a new apartment.

It's the brainchild of Krishna
Jonnakadla, 37 and Kartik Jonnakadla, 33, residents of south Bengaluru,
who wanted to promote offline shopping through an online medium. While
Krishna worked as a chartered accountant in the US for 11 years and
invested in many such startups, Kartik, a market researcher, took the
entrepreneurial leap and joined his brother in the new venture. The duo
began to collate information from merchants and branded stores about the
deals they are offering and put it together on the app.

"We
want merchants to own the service. So if one logs in as a
merchant/vendor/shopkeeper, she or he can automatically enter inputs on
the discount, see how many people view it and how many are interested.
There are 16 categories of products available on the platform," said
Kartik. Madz is likely to be launched in 10 other cities, including
Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi,
early next week. "I have invested all I'd saved in the US.

The
app is a platform that will enable both parties — merchant and consumer —
to find what is best for them. We have to constantly upgrade technology
so that streaming of information is smooth for those who access the app
at the same time. Later, I will leave the app entirely to the users,"
said Krishna. He's invested Rs 65 lakh in the venture.

How it works:

Download the app

Log in and specify if you're a merchant or shopper

If you are shopper, search for the area you want to go to. You'll find a
list of deals and offers available there. It can be seen on the area
map too

If you are a merchant, you can upload your offers and find out the number of clicks they have fetched

It was sometime in mid-2014 when we went shopping for shoes in
Indiranagar. I came across mind-boggling deals on a US brand. On another
occasion, we were leaving a mall in Koramangala when I heard a girl say
to her father that she had heard of some discounts in the mall but
wasn't sure which store was offering them. A tour of city markets was
enough for me to realize that online shopaholics don't even know what
all is available in their area, says Kartik Jonnakadla, co-founder,
Madz.

Sunday, 8 March 2015

Jeffrey
Hammerbacher is a number cruncher — a Harvard math major to a Wall
Street quant who graduated to a key role at Facebook. Then came his
Eureka moment — the founding of a successful data start-up.

Five years ago, he was given a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, a crisis
that fuelled in him a fierce curiosity in medicine — about how the body
and brain work and why they sometimes fail. The more he read and talked
to experts, the more he became convinced that medicine needed people
like him: skilled practitioners of data science who could guide
scientific discovery and decision-making.

Now, Hammerbacher,
32, is on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai,
with no academic training in medicine or biology. He is there because
the school has begun an ambitious, well-funded initiative to apply Big
Data (data science) to medicine.

Hammerbacher stood recently in
front of a white board filled with an amalgam of computer and genetic
code, speaking of "Linux clusters" and "gnarly C code" — standard terms
in the language of computing — but the main subject was biomedical
science. He also discussed "neoantigens" and "gene variants," and the
data-driven hunt to find and understand the rogue cell clusters of
cancer. "We're pursuing problems that are computationally and
intellectually exciting, and where there is the potential to change how
doctors treat patients in two or three years," Hammerbacher said.

Eric Schadt, the computational biologist who recruited Hammerbacher to
Mount Sinai, says the goal is to transform medicine into an information
science, where data and computing are marshalled to deliver
breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes and
other chronic diseases. Mount Sinai is only one of several major medical
schools turning to Big Data as a big part of the future of medicine and
health care.

They are reaching out to people like
Hammerbacher, whose career arc traces the evolution of data science as
it has spread across the economy.

After a job designing trading
models at Bear Stearns, he worked for a few important years at
Facebook, where he started the social network's data team and made his
reputation, and a tidy sum. Next, he was one of four founders of
Cloudera, a fast-growing company that makes software tools for data
science. And now he is immersed in medicine, thanks to his roots in Math
and tryst with bipolar.

Hammerbacher was always a numbers guy.
Rachana Fischer, a litigator in Silicon Valley, was a year ahead of him
in high school. She recalls, "His career is based on analyzing people
by data and numbers."

Hammerbacher's team does not do the basic
science. Other researchers do that. His group works on the
"computational pipeline," he said, with the goal of making personalized
treatments more automated and thus more affordable and practical.

Today he speaks less about quants taking over than about their lending a
hand. "We're not the most important people," he said, "but we can
help."

Saturday, 7 March 2015

Microsoft
has released a preview of Office 2016 for Mac, free to all users of Mac
OS X 10.10 Yosemite until its official release later this year. This is
the first new version of Office for Mac in five years, and brings a lot
of features Windows users have had for some time.

For
instance, all of these applications now integrate with Microsoft cloud
storage, meaning you can save to and open files from OneDrive, OneDrive
for Business, and SharePoint.

On the collaboration front, Word also gets the ability for co-authors to work on a document simultaneously, Google Docs-style.

It also gussies up the suite's look across Word, PowerPoint, Excel,
OneNote, and Outlook, making it way prettier -including retina display, a
redesigned Ribbon interface, and full-screen view support.

Otherwise, there are a lot of little improvements: Word gets better
formatting options and a navigation pane that makes it easier to find
specific spots in long docs. Excel's keyboard shortcuts are now the same
between PC and Mac, which will probably save at least a few users some
headaches. PowerPoint presentations get more slide transition options.
Outlook gets the "conversation view" that lets you organize email chains
into threaded conversations, support for external apps, weather
information right in the app, Online Archive support, and other minor
improvements.

Microsoft's major goal with Office 2016 for Mac
isn't to reinvent the wheel, but rather to close the gaps and bring some
of the cool stuff back to the Mac. The full version is expected to come
out this summer for an unannounced price.

Thursday, 5 March 2015

China
will back e-commerce development and guide international expansion by
Chinese internet companies, Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday, in an
endorsement for firms such as Alibaba Group and JD.com.

He also
stressed the need for more state investment in the internet sector."In
addition to the 40 billion yuan ($6.38 billion) government fund already
in place for investment in China's emerging industries, more funds need
to be raised for promoting business development and innovation," Li
said.

Li's support would benefit Alibaba, the world's largest
e-commerce company, which is already investing in cloud computing and
internet finance. Its biggest rival, Beijing-based JD.com, has seen its
transactions more than treble in its online marketplace.

Others
firms likely to benefit include social networking and entertainment
company Tencent and online search firm Baidu. Both have internet finance
operations and are expanding internationally.

Both Li and the National Development
and Reform Commision (NDRC), in a separate annual report, stressed the
need to boost the technology industry, at a time of slowing economic
growth and as China tries to transition into a consumption-based economy
from its heavy reliance on manufacturing.

Li said the world's
second largest economy would target growth this year of around 7%,
signalling the lowest expansion for a quarter of a century.

Wednesday, 4 March 2015

Google's
latest mobile OS Android 5.0 Lollipop is continuing to see a
disappointingly small number of installs, according to new data released
by the company.

As reported by 9to5Google, Google has released
its monthly stats on the distribution of the various versions of its
Android mobile operating system. Lollipop has risen since last month —
but only just 3.3% of Android phones now run Lollipop, as compared to
1.6% at the start of February. It's
illustrative of the problem Google faces whenever it releases a new
version of its operating system: It has very little power to see that it
actually gets implemented.

Whereas Apple builds both its
hardware and its software, ensuring that new versions of iOS are swiftly
installed, Google isn't responsible for distribution. Instead, it's up
to the smartphone manufacturers themselves — HTC, Samsung, etc. — to
roll it out for their customers. But they can be extremely slow on the
uptake, leaving the overwhelming majority of Android users with an
outdated experience of the OS that doesn't represent what it is today.

More people still use Gingerbread — released in February 2011 — than Lollipop, the latest version.

In contrast, 64.6% of iOS devices use iOS 8, the latest mobile
operating system from Apple that was released in September 2014, just
two months prior to Lollipop.

Monday, 2 March 2015

Mobile
ad network Vserv has raised $11 million from Maverick Capital Ventures
with existing investor IDG Ventures also participating in the latest
financing round. Maverick Capital Ventures, the venture capital arm of
US hedge fund Maverick Capital, which manages $8 billion in assets, is
known for investing across mobile businesses outside the US, such as
Korean messaging app KakaoTalk and Youku.com, a Chinese video sharing
site.

In all, Mumbai-based Vserv has raised $18 million in
venture capital, including its first round of $3 million which it had
raised from IDG Ventures India. Co-founded by Dippak Khurana and Ashay
Padwal in 2010, Vserv pivoted last year to become a smart data platform
from a pure play ad tech firm. Bengaluru-based InMobi is the biggest
player in the ad tech space.

Confirming the fund-raise, Khurana
of Vserv, said, "Maverick has a successful history of investing early
in large-scale mobile platforms globally and we are delighted to be
their first investment in India as they bring capital and deep
technology domain expertise." Vserv's fund-raise comes at a time when
globally and in India, too, ad tech firms haven't been able to attract
new investments largely due to plummeting stocks of publicly listed US
firms such as Millennial Media and Tremor Video. Google and social
networking site Facebook have been weaning away clients from these ad
tech companies.

Matthew Kinsella, MD, Maverick Cap, said,
"Vserv is uniquely positioned to drive the mobile internet ecosystem in
India and South East Asia through their data assets. We look forward to
helping Vserv accelerate its growth further." Manik Arora, founder &
MD at IDG Ventures India, said that the mobile internet ecosystem is at
an inflection point in India today and "we are delighted to further
support the company".

Sunday, 1 March 2015

Samsung
is about to unveil the Galaxy S6 and its curved screen variant, S6 Edge
at its Unpacked event on the sidelines of MWC 2015.

The
biggest launch at the Mobile World Congress, Samsung Galaxy S6 is said
to have a 5-inch display, smaller than the screen size of its
predecessor. However, the resolution is said to go up from Full HD
(1080x1920p) to 2K (1440x1560p). The Galaxy S6 Edge will have curved
screens on both sides, according to leaks and Samsung's teaser videos
and images.

The upcoming model will run on the 64-bit octa-core
Exynos 7420 chipset, which is made on the ultra-thin 14nm process. The
smartphone is said to come in 32, 64 and 128GB variants and is expected
to have 3GB and 4GB RAM options. It is expected that Samsung will use a
20.7MP Sony sensor for the Galaxy S6's rear camera; a 5MP camera will be
used for taking selfies.

The battery capacity of Galaxy S6 is
said to be 2,600mAh, 200mAh lesser than that of Galaxy S5. Samsung is
also making on add-on back panels that provide extra functionality to
the smartphone, like turning it into an e-reader or place S Health
features on the back.

The design too is likely to get an overhaul this year, with metal frame and ultra-thin bezels.

Cyber
security, mobile apps and cloud storage were buzz words in Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's speech at a Nasscom event in the capital here
on Sunday where he urged young IT engineers to take innovation to the
next level.

Applauding their work, he said, "You are doing a
great job and that is why I can expect things... The prime reason for
the IT industry's success of the IT industry is that the government is
not there anywhere," he said. Raising the issue of cyber security
dogging the world Modi said the cyber security issue it is a great
opportunity for the industry to leverage. He asked whether Nasscom could
form a task force to check the feasibility of Indian IT professionals
solving the cyber-security puzzle for digital assets around the world,
which he said could be a future market. "Can we do innovation in this
field? There will be a huge market, I am sure."

The PM offered
strong support to the industry. He said Modi said the government is
building IT infrastructure, and would adopt innovations by the industry.
He said the world would need "digital godowns" in the near future and
banks and the government could move to cloud storage. He referred
Referring to the Gold Bond scheme announced in the Budget, on Saturday
that gives people an option to own precious metal without physically
buying it, and he said the instruments can be kept safely in 'Cloud
Lockers'.

An avid user of social media, Modi who was one of the
first political leaders in India to successfully use social media for
campaigning, emphasized the significance of mobile apps and the
important role mobile apps they can play in delivering citizen-centric
services and mobile governance. Vouching for a revolution in
e-governance, the PM said e-governance also implies easy and economical
governance - and to begin with, he invited ideas from the public for
developing a mobile app for his office to make it more mobile friendly
for citizens. "The faster you all (industry) make mobile apps, the
faster you will capture the market. We need a revolution in mobile
governance," he said.

The PM
also explained how technology was helping to curb corruption like He
gave examples of the the coal block auctions and Direct Benefit Transfer
of LPG subsidy. TNN Asking the Modi asked Indian IT sector to boost
tourism in India. One way of doing this, he said, was to make virtual
museums showcasing the country's heritage could be made and asked them
to create e-libraries for schools. He also pressed upon industry leaders
the need to contribute towards creating e-libraries for schools.